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Perry's haul for the long haul

Rick Perry sent a clear message to his primary opponents Wednesday: The Texas governor is buckling in for a long campaign.

Forget for a moment the poor debate performances and an embarrassing defeat in last month’s Florida straw poll. With his announced $17 million fundraising haul, Perry proved he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

What Perry’s fundraising shows, his backers argue, is that he’s the only conservative candidate in the race with the resources to compete against Mitt Romney over the long haul. In other words, he can spend his way out of his current predicament.

And while Perry has likely lost his chance to run away with the Republican presidential nomination, his eye-opening cash haul — collected in just 49 days — suggests he may yet be able to wrest it from Romney in an expensive, bruising nomination fight that drags on into spring.

“He is going to have the resources to run a comprehensive and lengthy campaign,” said Mississippi Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour, a Perry supporter. “It’s clear that he would have raised more than $17 million if not for the loss of momentum that happened in Florida, which makes the $17 million more impressive.”

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If the Perry team is correct and Romney has already disqualified himself with too many GOP primary voters, there’s only one other candidate in the race who looks capable of cobbling together the right set of votes to claim the nomination.

“We’re 90 days out from the first ballot being cast and I don’t know whether Romney can seal the deal,” said Jeff Ballabon, an influential GOP fundraiser supporting Perry. “But $17 million in seven weeks from 20,000 in 50 states just said loud and clear that Perry can.”